Tsunami
Tsunami was a heavyweight robot from Germany that competed in German Robot Wars, and Series 7 of Robot Wars. Tsunami had finished as runner-up in German Robot Wars, losing out to Black Hole in the Grand Final. During its appearance in the UK Series, Tsunami flipped all three of its opponents out of the arena on the way to the Heat Final, where it was ironically thrown out of the arena by X-Terminator's flywheel. Versions of Tsunami Tsunami (German Robot Wars) In the German Robot Wars, Tsunami was a wedge-shaped robot, weighing 90kg. It was painted black with a tidal wave design, and the robot's name in red on the sides. Its weapon was a flipper, which ran at a reasonably low pressure in exchange for lots of use throughout the battles, and could still overturn robots much bigger than Tsunami. Underneath the flipper was an aesthetic of open jaws, and the curved rear of the robot was decorated with LEDs. Tsunami was fast, courtesy of its 2 x 750w electric motors, and had the lowest ground clearance in the German Wars, but its armour proved susceptible to being ripped away. Tsunami (UK Series 7) For its UK Series appearance, Tsunami was altered to use a more compact and rounded design, had grey titanium armour, and a steep flipper operating at full pressure. The robot was extremely quick at 30mph, and was more than capable of flipping robots out of the arena, as well as turning itself over. The tidal wave and red lettering was replaced by a different logo in white. Just like Scraptosaur, it had a snarling mouth full of teeth painted onto the battery that could be seen when its flipper was fired. Qualification In order to qualify for the German series of Robot Wars, all German competitors were required to attend an inspection run by Derek Foxwell in May 2002, to receive safety advice, and pointers with the build. A relatively complete (albeit unpainted) Tsunami attended the event, and as German Robot Wars had less applicants than the number of spaces for competitors, Tsunami was automatically accepted for the German series. In its qualifier for the UK's seventh series, Tsunami fought Shredder Evolution and Woden. However, Shredder Evolution was able to collect the points for immobilising Woden, and would ultimately win the battle over Tsunami. Despite this, Tsunami qualified for the series alongside Shredder Evolution through a discretionary place. Robot History German Series Tsunami began its campaign in the German Series in a three-way battle against Absolut Krankhaft and Black Hole. It approached Black Hole, but retreated, driving in a circle until Black Hole used its discs to force itself underneath Absolut Krankhaft. Tsunami capitalised, flipping the Dutch robot onto its back. Somewhat sportingly, Tsunami eventually flipped Absolut Krankhaft back onto its wheels, but when Absolut Krankhaft drove into the pit release button, Tsunami closed the gap, and Absolut Krankhaft drove straight up the wedge of Tsunami, which landed the killer flip near the arena wall. Tsunami and Black Hole leisurely drove around the arena until Absolut Krankhaft was counted out by Refbot, and 'cease' was later called, with both robots qualifying. This put Tsunami into the second round, where it could earn a place in the Grand Final by defeating Not Perfect. As Not Perfect entered the arena inverted, Tsunami could comfortably drive underneath it and use its wedge shape to tip Not Perfect up, and then overturn it using the flipper, also damaging Not Perfect's wedge. With its next flip, Tsunami completely removed the front wedge of Not Perfect. Because of this, Tsunami now had no difficulty getting underneath Not Perfect for its third flip, but could not overturn it until Tsunami's fourth flip, using its drive power to push the bulky opponent over. Tsunami wedged under the inverted Not Perfect, flicked it up, and then engaged in an extended pushing battle before using its flipper again. Tsunami continued to ram and lift Not Perfect until it eventually pressed the pit release button, but could not bring its opponent towards the pit, instead lifting and then flipping Not Perfect into Dead Metal. Tsunami briefly pinned Not Perfect on its back, and later used the top of its wedge to suspend Not Perfect, and then throw it backwards. Clearly low on battery power, Tsunami was finally left exposed to a counter-attack from Not Perfect, being held over the flame pit until 'cease' was called. Regardless, Tsunami resoundingly won the Jury's decision. This put Tsunami through to the Grand Final. There in the Grand Final, within the top four of the competition, Tsunami fought Dutch entry Tyke. Tsunami had no difficulty exposing its opponent's ground clearance, and threw Tyke over. After a mistimed flip, Tsunami tossed Tyke onto the flame pit, and another flip from Tsunami hindered Tyke's mobility. Tsunami inadvertently fixed this problem with another flip, but Tsunami's next flip left Tyke with only one working wheel. Curiously, Tsunami started to emit a copious amount of smoke, but continued to use its flipper regardless with three consecutive attacks until Tyke was fully immobilised, while Tsunami's brief blaze subsided. The victorious Tsunami spun in circles and fired its weapon in celebration, having guaranteed itself a top-two finish. In the championship battle, Tsunami once again faced the very first robot it encountered in the series, Black Hole. Tsunami showed no fear, and threw Black Hole straight over, although it had to flee to retract its flipper. Tsunami started to gradually take damage from Black Hole's weaponry, eventually throwing it directly onto the spinning discs, and aggressively backed into it, driving into an empty CPZ. Black Hole landed a big hit, but Tsunami used its rear end to recoil Black Hole upwards, and then ram it. In decidedly worse driving, Tsunami drove directly into Mr. Psycho, and then up Black Hole's rear wedge, where it became stuck. Both robots had to be separated by Mr. Psycho, and a damaged Tsunami pressed the pit release button in a new tactic. It earned its second flip, although this allowed Black Hole to spin its discs the right way up, and Tsunami took damage from consecutive blows. The two robots became stuck together when Black Hole cut through Tsunami's armour, and both robots pushed each other over the flame pit, but Tsunami's front wedge had been severed at this stage. An entire side panel of Tsunami was ripped loose by Black Hole, and then flung away entirely. In the dying moments of the battle, Tsunami's flipper was locked up, and armour was cut away from the rear of Tsunami until 'cease' was called on the final battle of the championship. Tsunami had fought valiantly, but ultimately the damage sustained by it led to a unanimous Jury's decision in favour of Black Hole. Tsunami finished second in Robot Wars: The German Struggles. Series 7 Off the back of its second-place finish in German Robot Wars, Tsunami entered the Seventh Wars UK Championship where it appeared in Heat F and in its first round melee, it met the eleventh seed X-Terminator and veterans Major Tom 3 and Diabolus. Although Tsunami sustained minor damage from Diabolus' spinning discs in the opening stages, it responded by flipping Diabolus over, also flipping itself, but Tsunami self-righted easily. Tsunami then truly kicked into action when it snuck around the side of Major Tom 3, drove it to the arena side wall, and flipped it out of the arena just twenty seconds into the battle. X-Terminator had also immobilised Diabolus in the meantime, and threw it onto the side of the arena wall, so only ten seconds later, Tsunami launched Diabolus out of the arena, also removing its top armour panel. Tsunami had qualified for the second round alongside X-Terminator in style, becoming the fifth robot to throw two robots out of the arena in a single fight. In the second round, Tsunami rode the wave of momentum as it fought Constrictor, to the dismay of the opposing team, who hoped that Tsunami would damage itself with the recoil of its own flipper. Team Tsunami Robot were very confident about the battle. Tsunami was easily able to get underneath Constrictor's weapon, and threw the whole robot over, which caused armour to hang loose from Constrictor after the first flip. Although Constrictor self-righted, Tsunami wedged under it and maintained its presence. Constrictor fled, and Tsunami exploited its vulnerability, barrelling it across the arena with a flip, causing armour to fall off Constrictor completely, and followed this up by ramming the up-ended machine. Constrictor simply stood still, failing to self-right, so Tsunami lined up the perfect flip, drove under Constrictor's rear ground clearance, and tossed it out of the arena, breaking the record for most consecutive out of the arena flips in the show in the process, with three. Tsunami had qualified for the Heat Final, where it once again met the eleventh seed, X-Terminator. Both teams were cautious of what promised to be a battle between two strong robots. Tsunami started the battle cautiously, fearful of its opponents disc, which landed a blow to the rear of the fleeing Tsunami. It backed away, but managed to slot its flipper under a corner of X-Terminator and launched the seeded machine over, which skittered all the way to the arena wall on the momentum of its vertical flywheel. X-Terminator could not self-right, but Tsunami sensed an opportunity to end the battle in style, and tried to flip it out of the arena, but X-Terminator stayed in the confines of the warzone, and landed on its side. Using its side self-righting mechanisms, X-Terminator laid vulnerable on the arena wall. Tsunami took its time to line up the finishing blow, but missed with its effort, and flipped X-Terminator back onto its wheels, within the arena. After saving its opponent, Tsunami was on the receiving end of a comeback, as X-Terminator rolled Tsunami over using its flywheel, and flung it with a follow-up attack. Tsunami's ground clearance was inferior to X-Terminator's, and its flipper sustained a blow from the flywheel, and X-Terminator closed it towards Sir Killalot, sustaining more damage. Tsunami returned to evasion, but was tossed into the air by another attack from X-Terminator, and was forced to self-right. This was X-Terminator's opportunity to close in and cause heavy damage, slicing through Tsunami's wedge, overturning it, and forcing Tsunami to self-right directly into X-Terminator, which ripped away the back panel from Tsunami, which was now smoking. More armour was taken from Tsunami by another attack, which could no longer self-right successfully, and X-Terminator pushed the battered Tsunami into the wall to follow this up with a bigger slam. Tsunami was finally eliminated from the heat when X-Terminator closed in with its last attack, discarding Tsunami out of the arena completely. Tsunami had been eliminated at a relatively early stage of the competition, but the team said they were not disappointed, and had fun in the competition despite Craig Charles stating how close to victory they had come. Results |} Wins/Losses *UK Wins: 2 *UK Losses: 1 *German Wins: 3 *German Losses: 1 Series Record German Series Tsunami germ pits.jpg|Tsunami in the pits during the German series Tsumani germa pits.jpg|Rear view of Tsunami from the German series TsuanmiTeam.jpg|The team with Tsunami after Series 7 UK Series Outside Robot Wars Adrenlin.png|Adrenalin, Team Flatliner's featherweight Stalker.png|Stalker, Team Flatliner's other featherweight Tsunami 2003.jpg|Tsunami at the Dutch Robot Games 2003 Following the end of Robot Wars, Tsunami continued to fight in many live events, mainly in Europe due to the team coming from Germany, Including the Roaming Robots 2003 Event held in the Netherlands for the European Championships. It also made an appearance at the Roaming Robots event which was held in Folkestone in 2004. In 2007, Tsunami was sold to another German team called Team Flatliner, it remained out of action for five more years until it was refurbished and brought out of retirement in 2012. Team Flatliner also created two featherweight robots, Adrenalin and Stalker, both of which were armed with rear-hinged flippers. Robot Wars Live Events Tsunami has only made one appearance in the Robot Wars Live Events. It competed in the first live event of the newly rebranded Robot Wars at Portsmouth in March 2013. Tsunami lost its heat against Eruption where it was thrown out the arena and also lost every other whiteboard fight it competed in. It did however win the European Challenge, where it earned vengeance on Black Hole by defeating its spiritual successor Luzifer, also defeating Gravity. Trivia *At thirty-six seconds, Tsunami's battle against X-Terminator, Major Tom 3 and Diabolus is the shortest battle in UK Robot Wars to require two immobilisations. However, it did not make the top 30 list. *Had Tsunami defeated X-Terminator, along with St. Agro and Bulldog Breed afterwards, the four competitors from the Grand Final would all have been named after types of natural hazard or disaster (Typhoon, Storm and Tornado). *Due to the nature of the international series they competed in, Tsunami and Lizzard were the only domestic championship runners-up prior to UK Series 8 to have fought the eventual Grand Champion earlier in the same competition. *Through throwing three of its opponents out in its first two Series 7 battles, Tsunami broke the record of most consecutive out of the arena flips. Thermidor 2 and Chaos 2 previously held the joint record with two. The record would later be broken by Atomic and matched by Eruption. *Tsunami was the fifth robot to flip two robots out of the Arena in one battle, including Dantomkia's edited out flips in Extreme 2. *In its Series 7 appearance, Stuart McDonald pronounced Tsunami's name as "Tuss-ami". Honours Category:German Robots Category:German Series competitors Category:German Finalists Category:UK Series competitors Category:Robots that have thrown another robot out of the arena Category:Robots Thrown out of the Arena Category:Robots with more Wins than Losses Category:Two Nation Competitors Category:Competitors in Robot Wars Live Events Category:Robots to throw 2 robots out of the arena in one fight Category:Robots named after weather Category:UK Heat Finalists Category:Robots with Rear-hinged Flippers Category:Robots with alternate versions